The invention relates to reactive liquid crystal compounds of formula I 
wherein
The invention furthermore relates to compositions comprising at least two reactive liquid crystal compounds at least one of which is a compound of formula I as specified above.
Another aspect of the invention are linear or crosslinked (co)polymers obtainable by (co)polymerizing at least one reactive liquid crystal compound of formula I or a composition as described above.
Yet another aspect of the invention is the use of reactive liquid crystal compounds or compositions as described above for the preparation of linear or crosslinked polymers or polymer films for decorative pigments, cosmetics or security applications, active and passive optical elements, like e.g. optical polarizer or compensator films, colour filters, scattering displays, adhesives or synthetic resins with anisotropic mechanical properties.